DianeThePunk
2021
The skeleton of the job system from FF5 is there and there's a surprising amount of strategic depth to this game. Far from perfect, but it's where the Final Fantasy series started to develop its identity in terms of its gameplay.
2021
Look, I mean, it's fine. It's not genius but it's not terrible either. The story is just a rehash of FF2 but somehow with less depth. Zero customization to speak of in party composition or strategy. It would be fine if it was framed as an RPG for beginners, but it's not. It's framed as an RPG for fans of the genre.
2021
This game gets an insane amount of hate because of its bad reputation and because of certain content creators overreacting for...well, content. This game does everything FF4 does but does it way better and the pixel remaster version smooths out almost all the rough edges the original NES version had.
2001
One of the best in the whole dang series. The sphere grid adds just enough room for customization on your first playthrough and the expert sphere grid lets you go completely crazy with how you build your party.
Good but people have serious nostalgia goggles for this game and are willing to forgive a lot of really atrocious dungeon design.
2010
The only reason this isn't worse than Megaman 9 on my list is because it has an easy mode and because you can play as Protoman who has Mega's moveset from 4.
2008
This game feels like someone asked "what made Megaman 1 and 2 so special" and came away from it with "the difficult stage design, the lack of a charge shot, and the lack of a slide."
2002
Mostly solid game that captures a lot of what was fun about playing as Zero in Megaman X4. The ranking system is pretty darn harsh and getting weapons to max proficiency is very grindy but the only real consequence of getting a low rank is the game guilt tripping you.
1996
Another title that gets a lot of hate that isn't entirely deserved. The core platforming feels a little bit slower than previous entries in the series but the stage design works with that for the most part. The main exception is Wily Fortress 1 which is one of the worst stages in any Mega Man game.
1995
This title gets a lot of hate and not all of it is deserved. The stages are fun, the robot masters are fun to fight, and the subweapons are balanced. The game is only marred by the stupidly hard Wily fight at the end.
2001
There's almost nothing redeemable about this garbage game. I'd go into more detail but that's more than it deserves.
1993
Damn near perfect game spoiled only by the placement of the leg parts.
Because the leg parts are a core part of your movement kit, you're always going to want them first, and because the leg parts are just lying in the middle of Chill Penguin's stage, you're always going to complete his stage first on repeat playthroughs.
If the leg parts were instead placed in, say, the intro stage right after fighting one of the wasp gunships, then it would signal to the player that there are hidden armor upgrades that change your abilities, it would give the game a chance to tutorialize the dash jump better, and it would allow more flexibility in which mavericks you decide to fight first.
Because the leg parts are a core part of your movement kit, you're always going to want them first, and because the leg parts are just lying in the middle of Chill Penguin's stage, you're always going to complete his stage first on repeat playthroughs.
If the leg parts were instead placed in, say, the intro stage right after fighting one of the wasp gunships, then it would signal to the player that there are hidden armor upgrades that change your abilities, it would give the game a chance to tutorialize the dash jump better, and it would allow more flexibility in which mavericks you decide to fight first.
I'm interested in this
2016
Good, but eclipsed by Royal
2023
This game gave me anxiety